National Herald case: We owned more shares in Associated Journals than Nehru did, says Shanti Bhushan

By Kishor Kadam and Dinesh Unnikrishnan The pugnacious lawyer Shanti Bhushan has said his family owned a greater portion of shares than the Nehrus in the contentious company Associated Journals. Bhushan clarified to Firstpost on Saturday that his father Vishwamitra held five preference shares in the company that has come back to torment Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and its vice president Rahul Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru, he said, owned a far smaller portion. “He had only three shares. We own more than them,” Bhushan told Firstpost on Saturday over phone. The Associated Journals published The National Herald newspaper, founded by Nehru, which was later acquired by a company named Young Indian, in which the Gandhis hold more than three quarters equity. The two face allegations in a Delhi court that they illegally amassed property worth in excess of Rs 5,000 crore belonging to National Herald. Bhushan, earlier this week, had publicly claimed In Delhi that his father owned 300 shares of The Associated Journals, which was later taken over by the Gandhi family in 2010 through a newly-formed entity called Young Indian, by also taking over its Rs90 crore debt. But, Bhushan clarified that his father, Vishwamitra, owned five preference share of the company and not three hundred as reported by the media. But Bhushan confirmed that he “hadn’t checked the documents properly then, but later found out from Registrar of Companies (RoC) documents that his father’s shareholding was five shares with face value of Rs 100 each”. Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan’s son, too confirmed that it was a mistaken claim. “He had mentioned 300 on a memory impression,” he said. Firstpost independently verified this shareholding pattern from RoC documents and has a copy of it.

Young Indian was formed by the Gandhi family along with some prominent congress leaders including Motilal Vohra and Oscar Fernandes with an initial capital of Rs 5 lakh. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) later assigned Young Indian to acquire the debt of AJL. Since the transaction involved indirect ownership of the real estate assets in prime locations in Delhi and Mumbai, the opposition took up this issue in Parliament after a Delhi court summoned Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son and party Vice-President, Rahul Gandhi for appearance. The Congress had, subsequently, alleged ‘personal vendetta’ by the BJP on the Congress leadership. The AJL has total assets worth about Rs 5,000 crore, media reports said. The Gandhi family has 9.02 crore shares or 98.98 percent in AJL. Bhushan had termed the transfer of shares from AJL to YIL was ‘wholly illegal’ and said he will challenge this whole transaction in the court. Young Indian stopped publishing National Herald in 2008 primarily on account of financial constraints. Other shareholders Congress leadership has been maintaining that none of the shareholders in AJL, including the significant individual shareholders, had opposed the takeover of AJL by Young Indian. But this claim was exposed when Bhushan came out in public alleging foul play in the whole transaction. Other significant shareholders in AJL include the Bachhans under the name of Abhim Investments Pvt Ltd (one lakh shares) with the address of Pratiksha, Plot no 14, 10th road, Juhu Scheme, Bombay, 400049.  That apart, other shareholders include Behariji Projects (55,000 shares) with the address of Hastings Chambers, 7-C, Kiran Shankar Road, Calcutta; Sunil Sarin (20000 shares), Director of APS Electric Stapping India Pvt Ltd from New Delhi; Suresh Sarin (10,000 shares) from Maharani Bagh, New Delhi; Jogindra Jha (10,000 shares) with the address of Shripur Farm, Beerpur, Bihar; and Suryakant and Bharat B Shah (10,000 shares) with the address of 6 Amrit Bhavan, Khokhan’s Lane, Ghatkopar East, Mumbai. However, Firstpost couldn’t reach out these shareholders to find out whether they are also planning to seek judicial intervention.